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Pronouns and the professor

Thu., Nov. 24, 2016

Re: New words trigger an abstract clash, Nov. 20

New words trigger an abstract clash, Nov. 20

Jordan Peterson’s sin is not that he has outed the inherent dangers of Bill C-16. It’s that he chose to do so using social media. Had he, like a good academic boy, written about it in a refereed journal, no one — and certainly not the students and others he has engaged — would have noticed. But he would have ensured the support of the same academic brethren (including the dean of his department) who have signed letters and petition criticizing him.

As Marshall McLuhan foretold, “The medium is the message.”

Ab Dukacz, Mississauga

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All English speaking people who avoid saying “his or her” in favour of the gender-neutral “his” can now be charged under Bill C-16, if there is the slightest suspicion that the speaker spurns the inclusive alternative.

People who think this is unnecessary should thank goodness that they do not speak French. Direct translation of typical statements go something like this: “Canadians and Canadians who pay taxes … all those and those who work … Please remain with the one or the one with whom you arrived… etc etc etc).

For example, francophone members of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation are members of FEESO (Federation of teachers and teachers …). It is comforting to know that the legislature is working for the betterment of all of us and us. (I just made that up.)

Hugh McKechnie, Newmarket

Rosie DiManno didn’t fairly report on the pronoun debate at U of T. She used inflammatory words such as “hysterical” and judgmental terms such as “minority within a minority within a minority,” “gender contrived,” and “disappearing up their own anuses in fringe dialectics” to minimalize the importance of respecting people’s right to self-identify.

How we treat those who are marginalized says a lot about who we are as a society. And neither Professor Peterson nor Rosie are displaying any empathy, respect or understanding for those who are transgender, gender-queer or non-binary.

Joy Cowan, Toronto

Whether you believe that gender is binary or that “male” and “female” are but two points on the gender continuum, the simple solution is to stop referring to people by gender. We all have names; whether we wish to honour the one given to us at birth — or choose one later in life that better represents to the world who we feel we are inside — is up to each individual. As individuals we should not be defined by inherent characteristics such as race, sexual orientation, or gender — but by who we are as a person. It is time to put the “person” back in personal pronouns.

Kevin Clink, Brampton

Bravo, Ms DiManno.

Brendan Calder, Toronto

The nonsense displayed by the University of Toronto and the ad hominem attacking Brenda Cossman against Jordan Peterson for his refusal to use gender-neutral pronouns when addressing students reminds me of Thomas Jefferson who said, “I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility over the mind of man” and the late William F. Buckley, “Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended that there are other views.”

The claim that universities are institutions of free speech is a little like claiming that chickens have teeth and cows can fly.

John Clubine, Etobicoke

Finally fact checking reveals professor Peterson’s hoax that the Ontario Human Rights Commission is threatening to silence his right to free speech and turn him into a ventriloquist’s dummy for the politically correct social justice warriors of personal preferred pronouns.

After all his paranoid posturing we learn that he has no inherent grasp that form follows function in free speech. Setting matters. This misleading hyped-up controversy has not been about freedom of expression in the market place of ideas where freedom is unrestricted but in the workplace - at a university, covered by the Code.

According to the OHRC: “Refusing to address a trans person by their chosen name and a personal pronoun that matches their gender identity, or purposely misgendering, is discrimination when it takes place in a social area covered by the Code (employment, housing, and services like education).”

Thus, how politically compromising is it for Peterson when he is in the classroom at work getting paid to do his teaching job: “If in doubt, ask the person how they wish to be addressed. Use “they” if you don’t know. Or simply use their chosen name”?

Surely so much dissembling to deny a trangendered student their choice of pronoun that reflects their condition is unbecoming of a good teacher.

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